INSTALLATION
I was thinking of us retrieving lay comments from the computer and posting them here somehow. Perhaps the comments could be digitized and recorded on a loop to be placed here with earphones for a listening audience.
Yes.
They would have these paintings to look at and they'd have a stack of printed comments to read. They'd have the digitized audio comments to listen to, they'd have illuminated signs on the other wall to read and look at.
So that, in a nut shell is it.
Wow, that's a lot.
It's a lot but it all has to do with people talking about art.
Yes, I like that.
I looked at this window a lot. It's been left out of the discussion.
It's digital.
Yes.
And then I was interested in the gridded ceiling and there's a grid above the window.
Yes. Would you be interested in a reproduction of this image digitized to fit this window? In other words what can happen if you scan that image and then put it into photoshop, photoshop will digitize it into as many squares as you have room for?
Yeah, that's a good idea.
I had actually thought of fitting some of these images randomly into these squares.
Well, that's a thought too.
There'll be another binder like this that will be loaded with these comments. And both binders will have data sheets in front. There are already thirty or more in this book here. And many of them will come off home computers, or off a computer station set up especially for visitors or off the net from another computer station here in the gallery.
I'm concerned about the space being over activated.
This can be a trial show. Stride Gallery is like a laboratory. You don't have to have everything just so.
Yeah, you're right it's like a lab.
Yeah.
And they have picked up on the spirit of this actually, by giving me the extra space but I don't want the viewer to be overwhelmed.
Do you want a certain clarity?
A certain amount of clarity and a pristine look about it so that ah, the components won't seem too disparate. They are disparate anyway. There's going to be a bunch of stuff going on there, two binders full of dialogues and images, an audio recorder--if we can entice anybody to step up and talk in front of it. There'll be an audio player that will have maybe 70 or so of those snippets of dialogue coming out as computer voices.
Wow!
So you'll hear the talk in flattened digitized voices
Oh, yeah.
Well. It'll be on display as one of the interactive stations at the exhibition and it'll be on display there. The five copies of the painting will be in the computer and visitors will step up and play with them. They can print out their results on the spot. Each copy will be mounted in the book. I could be collecting hundreds of these. Some of them will be coming in from the net, too.
We could also have an internet station that's downstairs so it's a little bit more private. It will serve a dual purpose for our use and yours.
Well, I like that. I really like that.
It kind of jives more with what we're trying to get going in the project room.
Yeah
Getting used for.....
Yeahhhhh.
So it seems a bit backwards to have an exhibition of ah, I don't know, photographs downstairs in the project room when there's all this activity upstairs that could expand.
Well, we could use that as an exhibition space for some very special copied ones that come in or groups of copied ones.
Whatever you like yeah, but would be a place...
You know what? I had a fantasy that my project could extend over Susan's floor. I love it so much and it would be in the spirit of the historical landscapes.
If you want I could talk to her about it. sure.
I'm trying to think ahead and organize the space in a way that's formally acceptable. People don't have to take part in all the stations.
Yeah.
So those devices would just be sitting there. If someone wanted to spend more time there like they do in a larger museum or gallery they can sit down at a computer station and make a copy of the landscape.
Maybe you just go and participate in one aspect.
Yeah. You'd get the concept no matter what aspect.
Yeah, I like the idea that a show is not completely accessible at once.
Yeah.
It ties in with the idea that the world is something that we can't - you know, condense into a nice digital bit and "have".
Yeah, but Vera Gartley is trying to have it.
I know.
[Laughter]
It's going to be my downfall.
Well, you can dream the impossible dream, Vera.
Let me show you my binder. I didn't have it when I was here before. Part of the project is going to be an archive. This is the beginning of it here. And ah, these are some of the texts I've collected including the one that I recorded here last time. That's where this text came from It's my aunt speaking there.
O.K
And I've selected some things that might go in place here. And because I don't know what's going to be behind the others I have selected about 25 and I'm going to choose ones that go with...Like this probably doesn't go with this image because it doesn't show the original cracked one. I don't know if I showed you this set of pictures before.
See Tim, actually that original painting was done...actually I should let Vera tell it.
Well, this was done early in the century and my mother who is 90 now watched a man painting it. He was what you might call a visual busker at a sports day. And it hung in her grandmother's parlor. And when here grandmother died her parents got it and it was kept and hung in their parlor. It surfaced again 10 or 20 years ago when they began making copies. But part of the story was that my uncle had bounced a ball against this corner and it went through the painting.
Ooh. So that's it. We were wondering.
What are you going to put on the signs?
They will be a lighted signs--lighted from the perimeter. Have you seen those? The lights are buried in the frame,and it travels unseen through the acrylic plastic.
Right.
And it's picked up where the plastic has been routered.
Right, right, O.K.
I've done pieces like back-lit signs with writing on them before. And I was involved in a collaborative project where we had a piece that uh, had sandblasted lettering on glass. It was a model for a permanent installation. I would use the acrylic this time.
And that would be text-based signage?
Yeah. It would be a few choice texts from here--from some of my interactions through setting this up. You just turn the thing back on itself so it flattens the content.
Uh huh
And yet when the letters pick up the light it's a very beautiful kind of thing.
It's a good time to get students involved.
Yeah.
This is going to be a very active exhibition.
Yes, I think it is.
And I think if you want to be able to have the opportunity to animate both spaces ah...The upstairs and the downstairs then we can present that to you as an option.
Mmmm.
And if some of the copies sell, great. If they don't, it doesn't matter you know. Because I'm thinking if you have five paintings on one wall and you have the signage and then you know there's at least two stations we've talked about...
Yes.
That's a lot of stuff just up here.
Yes.
And I'm wondering if we're going to have a very active sort of internet component we could still have a computer upstairs if you like--for generating copies. But ah, we could also have an internet station that's downstairs so it's a little bit more private. It will serve a dual purpose for our use and yours.
Well, I like that. I really like that.
It kind of jives more with what we're trying to get going in the project room.
Yeah
Getting used for...
Yeahhhhh.
So it seems a bit backwards to have an exhibition of ah, I don't know, photographs downstairs in the project room when there's all this activity upstairs that could expand.
Well, we could use that as an exhibition space for some very special copied ones that come in or groups of copied ones.
Whatever you like yeah.
You know what? I had a fantasy that my project could extend over Susan's floor. I love it so much and it would be in the spirit of the historical landscapes.
If you want I could talk to her about it. sure.
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